From the other side of the world.

Me: Look at this hilarious video.
Zohar: I don’t understand him.
Me: (laughs)
Zohar: Why are you laughing? You should be sad.
Me: (laughs somewhat more self-consciously)
*silence*

Needless to say, I felt depressed and even more frustrated several minutes after the conversation above. To Malaysians, we have had to tolerate with so much crap from the ruling elite that what was on the video was simply hilarious. Not only was his English indecipherable to non-Malaysians, he did not answer any of the questions and he sounded like a flustered school boy who was caught red handed

My friends here are bemused if not bewildered when I tell them about Malaysia. They find it hard to believe that everything is so racial that even the main political parties are polarized by skin color. They can’t fathom the fact that our skin color can determine where we go to college. And I don’t even want to get started with the ambiguity of the law when it comes to religion and the very existence of faith rehabilitation centers.

Going to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis taught me one thing. Change takes time. A lot of time. Laws may be passed and rights may be recognized but people are stubborn. Despite our revolutionary technological progress, attitudes and prejudices can be difficult to change especially after years of molding and hardening.

Clearly Malaysia has a long way to go from even changing it’s racial laws and policies. What we need now is a stronger political voice. I’m glad that these rallies happened. It’s a sign that many Malaysians are unhappy and they want things to change so bad that threats and acts of violence against them won’t deter their spirits. But I do not want to see bloodied riots and mass arrests. The government needs to see that suppressing other views and opinions will no longer work. The rakyats are becoming restless.

If it weren’t for the wonderful young Malaysians on the internet writing for a better country, inspiring others, I would have already made my decision to leave. I want to live a life of sincerity and prosperity, not of hypocrisy and fear.

I’m torn.

Heh, the “official” defense

Information Minister on Al-Jazeera

😀

P/S: Sorry for the very amateur feel to the video.

Malaysiakini.com is down

Update 

I notice the sudden traffic to my blog. Yes I am awake at 2.54 am in the morning to know what is going on.

Good websites to go to now:

http://uhaveachoice.wordpress.com/environment/

http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/11/bersih-gathering-is-street-democracy.html

http://drxavier.wordpress.com/

http://soniarandhawa.blogspot.com/

Original post:

I do not know what is going on. The last I heard is that the police has surrounded all the meeting points and Dataran Merdeka itself. Water cannons have been used. The rally is on.

Our PM doesn’t believe in street demonstrations – apparently they’re never peaceful.

What a third world mentality.

Sorry for the lack of posts.

I’ve been pretty occupied lately with campus life. Plus blogging was too much of a procrastinating tool, but then again everything on the internet is. I have however been keeping up with news from home and it frustrates me to hear the same ol’ BS being repeated again and again. I don’t know why we let ourselves being governed by ridiculous politicians. Honestly, for all the “pride” we put into our country being so “modern”, “cultural” and “progressive”, we are clearly an embarrassment to the rest of the world. Not that anyone in the government noticed.

Just look at the way our government react to any dissent – blatant demonization. What kind of a democracy automatically makes an attempt to silence those who disagree? Aren’t different opinions vital for the government to always be on their toes? Aren’t they suppose to be represent all Malaysians or are they all too intoxicated with power that what they say is what we are suppose to want? I find it bemusing that they can discuss about “inappropriate” uniforms and radio station names when there are clearly more important issues to address.

Defeatists say the opposition is too weak to do anything. Well it might be true now, but not doing anything is simply immoral. We need to steer back to the right direction.

To everyone joining the rally which is bound to start within a few hours, I salute you.

 

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear
— Aung San Suu Kyi

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Die-in protest

College not combat — troops out now!
This is what democracy looks like!
Hey Bush what did you say? How many kids did you kill today?

Campus Anti-War Network (CAN) organized an anti-war die-in today on campus. It was suppose to start at 5pm but my class ended early at 3.45pm. So I practically waited around the Union by myself the entire time. I just love covering events with my Canon and it felt like something that I just had to do. And of course I just had to join in with the little red armbands they were giving out.

At around 5pm people started standing around around the Alma Mater. The whole thing started with a few speeches made by the participating organizations like CAN, The Green Party, Iraq Veterans Against the War and a few others (Sorry, I’m not exactly a journalist). The first picture below is actually one of the leaders of CAN and he happens to be my roommate’s friend. Yea Pete!

Before we marched into two groups for the planned die-in, everyone of course started shouting anti-war chants to get the anti-war mood going on. Then of we go! There were like around fifty of us (or more?). I suck at estimating the number of people in a crowd.

The die-in basically happened in two different areas of Green Street. First was just a block away from the Alma Mater and as we approached the next road, everyone stopped to basically lie down on the sidewalk as the rest of the protesters chalked everyone’s silhouettes and chanted anti-war slogans to passing cars. I was snapping away. Some pedestrians were literally walking over some of the protesters as they lay on the floor. There were also cars honking in approval with their drivers giving us thumbs ups. It was great.

As soon as everyone lying down was chalked, the protesters had their eyes on another area to “die-in”. The intersection of Green and Wright. Every few minutes (maybe was it a couple?) all of the traffic lights would turn red and the pedestrians (or in this case the protesters) had exactly 28 seconds to go to the middle of the road, lie down, and maybe get chalked, rise up again and scramble back to the safety of the sidewalk. This was definitely the best part. To take some of the pictures, I had to literally lie down amongst the protesters. I love the picture marked “Hardcore” below. He truly was indeed.

However, they were still at it at 6.15pm and I had to answer a couple of nature’s call. So I rushed back to the lovely bicycle Larissa gave me to use and managed to take a picture of the Alma Mater with red bands on both her wrists on the way.

An evening (or is it afternoon?) well spent.

I was at my first ever public protest. I’d like to join one at home.

Hilarious BS

I’m stuck on my chemistry online homework so I’ve decided to share some hilarious BS. This is our foreign minister on BBC’s Hardtalk. Classic. I wonder if he believes every single thing that came out of his mouth.

In viewing order,




enjoy~